[u]--yet it could as well be a
pilgrimage to Ise. Surely the hills of Hakone and Iga are no steeper
than this Kudanzaka." She sighed; and apart from a weariness of voice
there was a suspicion of moisture in her eyes. The more Rokuzo looked at
her, the greater waxed his pity and benevolence. Barely of eighteen
years she was a beautiful girl; not a servant, yet not one of the
secluded and guarded daughters of a noble House. Perhaps she was the
young wife of some soldier, and he was surprised at her being
unattended. She noted this, and readily explained the fact. There were
purchases yet to make, close by in Tayasu. Here a servant was to be at
hand, but wearied by waiting the woman had made off. "To offer a wage,
good sir, seems impolite; yet the way being the same deign to grant the
favour of your strength." In the petition her face was wreathed in
admiring smiles at Rokuzo's fine figure of a man. A light in the eyes,
captious and coquettish, the furtive glances at his broad shoulders and
stout neck, betrayed him into the indiscretion of volunteering a service
promptly accepted. This done, the lady, without losing sight of display
of her charm of manner, was all business.

Rokuzo had much to learn, and he was not one to profit much by his
lessons. If he was virtuous, he was by nature a very Simple Simon. A
greater liking for women might by contact have sharpened wits rather
dulled by drinking. As it was, anyone in the _yashiki_, who wished to
shift some unpleasant obligation, found in Rokuzo the one to be
impressed by the most specious excuse, and the one whose kindness of
heart undertook and carried out the purpose of avoidance by assumption
of the task. Instead of concocting some pretext to carry off Sukebei, or
one, or all, of his apprentices to the neighbouring street and a grog
shop, his inexperience and diffidence had carried him away still
thirsty. Instead of bumping into some passing fellow _chu[u]gen_ on the
street, and wiping out the insult with wine, he had idled along, leaving
to every man his share of the roadway, and to the thirsty with burdens
more than their share. Hence this uncongenial company of thirst and a
woman. She had halted at a grocer's shop, and his eyes were soon agog at
sight of her investments--mushrooms, not of much weight, but in bulk
forming almost a mound; the dried sliced gourd called _kambyoku_, of
which she seemed very fond; marrow, _to[u]gan_ (gourd-melon),[1] the new
and expensive p